Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

Junk mail voting defeats me

I’m a political junkie. I never miss voting in an election. But I did on Tuesday.

For the first time, there were no polling places to go to in Seattle. It was an all-mail ballot for the primary election to choose the finalists for mayor of Seattle, King County executive and several other important races. Those of you reading this in other parts of the country, be warned: voting by mail is the wave of the future.

And I don’t like it.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think there is something almost sacred about coming together with fellow citizens at a school or church or fire station and going through the public act of exercising the democratic franchise. Last November, I choked up as I passed a huge bust of Abraham Lincoln at the school where I voted, knowing that I and all the people around me were turning the gears of history as we made our choice for president — a decision that, for the first time, included an African American. It would not have felt the same if I’d been marking my ballot at home.

We already have too few moments that bring us together in civic engagement. Losing the polling booth really bothers me. And, this time, it was made worse by the fact that I didn’t vote.

Oh, I intended to. That mail-in ballot had been sitting around with the junk mail for days — just another thing on the to-do list that was easy to put off. Finally, on election day, my wife and I got down to it. We talked about the candidates and the issues and made our own decisions. She filled out her ballot. I was busy making lunch. On her way out the door to go to work, she reminded me that I’d have to take my ballot to the post office. I heard her, but I was distracted and her words didn’t quite register. The day got crowded with demands, as it always does, and, when I got home at 9:30 that evening, I realized the ballot was still sitting on the dining room table, unmarked and unmailed.

Trying not to feel too guilty, I fell back on the same sloppy excuse I’ve always derided when I’ve heard it from other people: It’s no big deal, one vote doesn’t make any difference. But the morning headlines proved, once again, how wrong that is. The mayor’s race was split three ways with just a tiny fraction of votes separating the contenders. My one vote could very well have made a difference.

Not that we really know who the actual winners are. That’s another annoyance with voting by mail. The ballots will still trickle in over the next couple of days. We are no longer enthused spectators enjoying one big, dramatic, all-American election night. Instead, mail-in ballots turn us into Third Worlders waiting in our thatch-roofed huts for the final votes to be carried in on the backs of donkeys.

I remember when my parents first took me to vote. It was an exciting right of passage. And I remember taking my own kids along whenever an election rolled around, just to get them used to the idea that this was something very important. Once they were old enough to vote, it was a proud day when we all went together to the school down the street and, in a public act, my son and daughter joined the ranks of free, self-governed people.

If Tuesday’s vote had been like the elections I’ve always known, I would have gotten myself to the polling place. I would have crossed paths with a neighbor or two and asked how things were going. I would have found the little old lady with my precinct list and I would have asked her how turnout was. I would have signed in and then I would have voted. This communal ritual would have given me a feeling of pride in being a citizen.

Instead, I let the danged mail-in ballot languish in a pile with the Eddie Bauer catalog, the credit card offers and the grocery ads. Instead of a being a proud citizen, now I’m just another deadbeat voter.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.